Manufacture of soles for shoes



Oct. 13, 1936. D N 2,057,023

MANUFACTURE OF SOLES FOR SHOES Filed May 4, 1955 Patented Oct. 13, 1936 UNITED STATES MANUFACTURE OF SOLES FOR SHOES George N. Gordon, Brockton, Masa, assignor to United Shoe Machinery Corporation, Paterson, N. J., a corporation of New Jersey Application May 4,1935, Serial No. 19,841 40mm. (01. 12-145) This invention relates to improvements in the manufacture of soles for shoes and is herein illustrated with reference to the manufacture of insoles for cross-strap sandals.

The crossstrap sandal of the type most commonly made at the present time usually .comprises an insole, an outsole and a plurality of cross-straps, the opposite ends of which extend between the soles and are permanently attached .to. one or both of them. In such a shoe the crossstraps tend to form humps or ridges in the insole, the outsole, or both soles at the points where the attached end portions of the straps are located. Such humps or ridges are unsightly and are liable to result in discomfort to the wearer of the shoe or to cause the outsole to wear un evenly and it has been proposed to insure against the formation of such an objectionable condition by providing recesses -in the marginal portion of the insole for receiving the ends of the straps, these recesses being formed in the surface of the insole which faces the outsole.

For the purpose of promoting emciency and economy in the manufacture of insoles hayin marginal recesses for the reception of sandal straps the present invention provides an improved method of making such insoles which comprises forming in the edge and in one face of a sole intersecting incisions shaped and arranged to form a feather and a marginal flap having a plurality of notches therein, and thereafter securing the portions of the flap between the notches to the feather, thereby producing in the insole a series of marginal strap-receiving 35 recesses which extend only partially through the sole and which are defined by the walls of the notches in the flap in conjunction with the adjacent'exposed surface portions of the feather. As herein exemplified the intersecting incisions 40 mayconveniently be formed by slitting inwardly from the edge ofthe sole along the shank portions and around the forepart so as to' 'form a feather and a marginal flap and cutting through the flap at spaced localities, for example by 45 means of a die, so as to form a series of notches therein. Advantageously, the notched flap is secured to the feather by means of cement and the edge slit is so located that the thickness of the flap, and consequently the depth of the marginal 50 recess resulting from the notching of the flap, will be substantially the same as the thickness of. the straps to be'employed. Thus when the ends of the straps have been secured within the recesses the exposed surfaces of the attached end 55 portions of the straps will be substantially flush with the adjacent unnotched surface portions of the insole so that the straps will be, in effect, countersunk in the insole and will have no tendency to produce ridges or irregularities in the outsole when the latter has been secured to the 5 insole.

The inventionwill be explained with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which Fig. 1 is a plan view of an insole as it appears after having been subjected to an edge slitting 10 operation;

Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view on'an enlarged scale, taken along the line 11-11 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the insole as it appears after the notches have been formed in the mar- 15 ginal flap produced by the edge slitting operation, and the remaining portions of the flap have been secured to the feather;

Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view of an insole, on an enlarged scale, illustrating the notch forming operation; and I Fig. 5 is a cross-sectional view, on an enlarged scale, taken along the line V-V of Fig. 3.

In accordance with my improved method. as illustrated in the drawing, there is formed in an insole iii an edge slit f 12 and a plurality of face slits 14, the edge slit forming a feather l6 V and a marginal flap l8 and the face slits l4 inter-i secting'the edge slit and being shaped and.ar--

ranged as shown to provide a plurality of rectangular notches in the flap l8. So long as the edge slit and the series of face slits intersect it is immaterial which is formed first and, if desired, the edge slitting operation may follow the operation of forming the face slits. Conveniently' the edge slit l2 may be formed by the use of a channeling machine equipped with a suitable edge slitting knife while the face slits It may advantageously be made by means of dies shaped to form the desired rectangular notches, the dies 40:

being operated to penetrate only the desired distance into the material of the sole. Preferably, the notches will be cut one at a time and, if desired, dies of different shapes may be employed to provide notches of different widths as may be required in different portions of the sole margin.

If the edge slit is formed first it may be found desirable to insert a. thin plate between the feather and the flap in the location where the notch is to be cut, the plate to serve as a cutting block in cooperation with the die to insure the securing of a clean cut and to guard against cutting too deeply into the substance of the sole. The die cutting operation, as performed without the use of a thin plate for cooperating with the die as above mentioned; is illustrated in Fig. 4 wherein designates the die and 22 the piece of waste material which is separated from the sole flap I! in forming the notch.

After the edge slit and the series of face slits I have been formed, as above described, those portions of the flap l8 which are located between the notches are secured to the feather l6 preferably by means of a suitable adhesive such as cement, as indicated conventionally at 24 in Fig. 5; Thus the walls of the notches in the flap ill, in conjunction with the adjacent inner surface of the feather l6, define marginal recesses 26 .which extend only partially through the insole and which are preferably of a depth substantially equal to the thickness of the straps which are to be employed in making a sandal so that when the straps are received in the recesses and attached to the insole the exposed surfaces of the straps will be substantially flush with the adjacent surface of the insole. The straps may be attached to the insole in any well-known manner, for example, by means of staples or cement. The sandal is then ready to be completed'by the attachment of an outsole, for example by means of cement, to-

the outer side of the insole.

Having described my invention, what I claim as i new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

'1. That improvement in the manufacture of soles for use in making strap sandals, which consists in forming in the edge and in one face of a sole intersecting incisions shaped and arranged to form a feather and a marginal flap having a plurality of notches therein, and thereafter 7 securing the portions of the flap between the notches to the feather whereby the walls of the notches in the flap, in conjunction with the adja- 40 cent exposed surface portions of the feather, de-

' fine marginal recesses extending only partially through the sole for the reception of the end portions of one or more sandal straps.

2. That improvement in the manufacture of soles for use in making strap sandals, which consistsin forming a plurality of spaced-apart incisions in one face of a sole and a single continuous incision in the edge of the sole intersecting said spaced-apart incisions thereby forming a feather and a marginal flap having a series of notches therein, applying cement between the feather and the unnotched portions of the flap,

and pressing said portions of the flap against the feather thereby securing said portions to the feather whereby the walls of the notches in the flap, in conjunction with the adjacent exposed surface portions of the feather define marginal recesses extending only partially through the sole for the reception of sandal straps.

3. That improvement in the manufacture of soles for use in making strap sandals, which consists in progressively slitting along the edge of a' sole thereby forming a feather and 'a flap each extending along the opposite marginal portions of the sole, thereafter forming a plurality of I notches in said flap, and securing together the feather and the portions of the flap between said notches, thereby forming in the sole a series of marginal recesses extending only partially through the sole for the reception of sandal straps.

4. That improvement in the manufacture of soles for use in making strap sandals, which consists in forming a feather and a marginal flap in a sole, dieing out a plurality of notches in said flap without notching said feather, and cementing the portions of the flap between said notches to the feather thereby forming in the marginal portion of the sole a plurality of strap-receiving recesses extending sole. GEORGE N. GORDON.

only partially through the 

